1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer networks. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for facilitating the process of uploading mass-distributed content to a server.
2. Related Art
The digital media revolution has been fueled in part by the wide availability and ever decreasing costs of CDs and DVDs. The number of different media titles available is growing steadily, and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. This fact, along with the increasing popularity of broadband connections, has resulted in numerous copies of the same media being uploaded to numerous locations on the Internet as well as many corporate and private networks.
There are a number of good reasons for uploading media content. Some consumers archive media titles to networked machines for backup purposes. IT technicians upload complete copies of media titles so they will be available on demand to any node on the network. While the systems and resources of today are adequate for handling these tasks, the time to upload the content can be enormous.
Typical CDs can contain up to 800 megabytes of data, and typical DVDs can contain over 4.7 gigabytes. Broadband connections typically provide bandwidth in the 1.5 megabit per second range. Hence, even assuming ideal conditions, an upload can still take hours to complete.
Providing adequate storage space on the systems that store these uploads is another problem. In some cases, precious storage space is wasted in storing numerous copies of identical content.
What is needed is a method and an apparatus that can upload content to a server in a quick and efficient manner while minimizing the problems listed above.